The "Debate"

Many people have been taught during childhood that same-sex sexual behavior is condemned both by God and by their religion as unnatural and morally degenerate. If they discover later in life that they are lesbian, gay, or bisexual they often go through a spiritual crisis. Too many realize that their sexual orientation is unchangeable, and that they have great difficulty going through life as someone that they have been taught to hate. They become depressed; some commit suicide. Survivors experience a conflict between what they are and what they believe. They sometimes abandon their religion. Some become enthusiastically anti-religious.

Some Christian denominations appear to be give great emphasis to what people do in bed with each other, rather than concentrating on drugs, hatred, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, poverty, racism, religious intolerance, sexism, violence, etc.

Over the past few centuries, many sexual debates have emerged between established religious organizations and secular groups in society. These have included:

· abortion

· birth control

· ordination of women as clergy

· same-gender sexual behavior

· inter-faith marriage

· inter-racial marriage

· pre-marital sexual activity

· roles of men and women in marriage and society, and

· same-sex marriages.

As a general rule, liberal faith groups resolve these conflicts first. These are followed by the mainline religious organizations, and finally by the fundamentalists and other evangelicals.

As one example, consider birth control. At the turn of the century, all or essentially all religious groups condemned family planning; some were active in promoting laws to ban the sale of contraceptives. Today, almost all groups consider birth control to be a non-issue. One major exception is the Roman Catholic Church. But even here, the "People of God" (the church laity) has almost fully adopted birth control in their own lives. One widely circulated statistic is that 98% of women have used a method of birth control that is banned by the Catholic Church.

Consider most intractable conflict: abortion. A few decades ago, there was a unified front among religious groups keep the procedure criminalized; legislation reflected this. Currently, the most liberal/progressive religious groups (Unitarian Universalist Association, United Church of Canada, United Church of Christ, etc.) support a woman's right to choose. The membership of mainline religious groups (Anglican, Congregationalists, Methodists, etc) hold opposing beliefs. The most conservative (fundamentalists, other evangelicals, etc.) are unalterably opposed. But even in the latter case, there is some movement in a liberal direction: religious groups now widely support a woman's access to abortion if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if it is to save the life of the woman. Here we clearly see a debate in progress in which the most liberal groups change first, followed by the mainline, with the conservative wing lagging far behind.

Inter-faith and inter-racial marriages were once hot religious topics. They have mostly become non-issues. Female ordination, feminism, and other sexually related topics are currently being hotly debated.

I mainly am saddened by this topic for the reason that it pushes those who want to come to know Christ or those who already know away from Him. I think that many times the church pushes more people away then brings them in… which is another topic for another time… but it is sad.

A survey of Christian churches and other religions reveals that many groups are agonizing over changes to their policies. Many decide to take either no action or to take the next step towards liberalization. To our knowledge, no faith group has gone in the opposite direction. As more lesbians and gays come out of the closet, more scientific research reveals the causes of sexual orientation, and the next generation takes over positions of power, the relaxation of policies against GLBTs are expected to continue. We expect that early in the 21st century, most religious groups will accept that same-sex attraction are not chosen and are unchangeable in adulthood. Those still opposed to same-sex behavior will probably concentrate on convincing lesbians and gays to remain celibate.

We feel that the trend towards accepting homosexual sexual orientation as natural, normal, and unstoppable, and that all religious groups will eventually abandon their restrictions on gay and lesbian participation. It will probably take many generations for the most conservative groups to complete this process.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_chri.htm